Outdoors: Barramundi keeping fresh and tasty for Massachusetts, world

Tuesday

Jul 16, 2013 at 6:00 AMJul 16, 2013 at 9:07 PM

There are many reasons to be proud of Massachusetts. One is a special fish that not too many people know about — yet.

While filming tigers in India last winter, I twice had the privilege of eating a fish I had never before tasted or even heard about. It was marvelous — sweet, firm and remarkably buttery — sinfully delicious like fresh, wild Arctic char.

Calling out the chefs to identity their masterpiece, I was first told at the five-star Oberoi in Mumbai that “bekti” was an ocean fish harvested just off the nearby coast in the Arabian Sea. Later, far inland, I had it again at the New Delhi Oberoi, where I was told it was a special river fish. To my surprise, both chefs were correct.

Catadromous like eels, bekti spend much of their lives in fresh water but lay their eggs in shallow ocean water and estuaries. After learning their scientific name from the hotel manager, I did a little research and found that both restaurants had served me what most of the world calls barramundi, the Australian aboriginal name for a large-scaled silver fish.

Barramundi naturally range from northern Australia to Southeast Asia and the India coast. They're also known as Asian sea bass, barramundi perch, Australian sea bass, and Australia's favorite fish. On my return home, I was delighted to hear that they're now in Massachusetts, the brainchild of a pioneering fish farming genius.

On the way to fish for shad with me on the Connecticut River, Grafton ichthyologist Noah DesRosiers, who did his graduate work on tropical fish in the Red Sea, tipped me off that barramundi are currently being commercially produced by Australis, a revolutionary fish farm in Turners Falls. How ironic that their location on the banks of the Connecticut River is where a single dam extirpated our local Atlantic salmon. Australis and its leadership are unlike any other fish farm.

Disillusioned by the dangerously destructive side effects of highly polluting, native-stock-altering ocean aquaculture, Australis founder and CEO Josh Goldman has built a close-containment, land-based fish farm, recycling and purifying 99 percent of its water, while collecting fish waste to give to local farmers for fertilizer.

Progressively larger aquariums there contain growing classes of same-size fish that are moved on as their space requirements increase. Without crowding, they grow rapidly. Australis has patented biological filters that minimize freshwater demands, allowing them to produce 2 million pounds of fish each year with a waste discharge of less than 15 pounds per day — the amount equal to three typical American families.

I was eager to learn whether Australis' farm-raised fish taste as good as the wild fish I had so enjoyed in India. Was it possible that sea-farmed or any hatchery fish being fed pellets could taste as good as wild fish eating their natural food? The Australis barramundi being sold locally are all frozen. Could they ever taste as good as fresh barramundi? Being a fisherman, I've been spoiled, like many sportsmen, who have the privilege of eating fish caught sometimes just hours before we cook them. I had to call Goldman for some answers.

The justly proud visionary that put Massachusetts at the forefront of this industry assuaged my concerns about their frozen fish, asserting that Australis uses a state-of-the-art Japanese belt freezer. Their fish consequently come out of the water, and in 5 seconds are nitrogen-frozen and cryo-vacked. In that respect, they're far fresher than wild fish hauled in on a boat and sold days later. No matter what we think about non-frozen fish, it begins to some degree deteriorating immediately. For oily fish like mackerel and bluefish, one day can make a huge difference in flavor.

Goldman assured me that instant freezing stops degradation immediately, making Australis barramundi “fresher than fresh.” I asked him to address molecular expansion and cellular leakage from freezing. That's the main reason that thawed fish exude liquid and taste dry after cooking. Goldman said there's little moisture when their barramundi are thawed. The small amounts that do appear are mostly from the melted layer of ice that's protectively applied to the fish when it's dipped in water at the moment of freezing. Goldman claims that in taste tests, diners can't tell the difference between their fresh and specially frozen barramundi.

I asked Goldman how a diet of hatchery food rather than wild food could affect flavor. After all, corn-fed deer, we know, taste far better than bud-browsing deer. Goldman pointed out the extreme variability in the wild barramundi diet. His farm-raised fish have a controllable, consistent quality. Goldman asserts that “Australis barramundi are always great,” while wild barramundi can be great — but also disappointing depending on many natural variables, including their diet.

Farm-raised barramundi are now readily available, too. That's not the case with wild fish, which are very seasonal, dependent on rains, tides and other vacillations of nature. Since wild barramundi don't form big schools, they're never caught in large numbers.

I also asked Goldman whether hatchery fish could be as healthy to eat as wild fish. Omega 3 fatty acids are one of the great benefits from eating certain fish. According to DesRosiers, fish don't make Omega 3's but get them from what they feed on. Do fish pellets provide barramundi the same nutritional benefits as wild food available in nature?

Again, Goldman surprised me.

“Australis barramundi have 600 milligrams/5 ounces of Omega 3 fatty acids,” he said. “That's about a five-fold increase over the levels that wild fish have.”

That is one of the greatest of Goldman's achievements in working to make the perfect fish. While fish like tilapia and catfish can be raised in mass and prove nutritious, they're far less healthy to eat, less buttery and delicious. The difference is a result of the barramundi's alchemic ability, stemming from its living in fresh and salt waters, to chemically elongate ingested short-chain fatty acids. Initially Australis adds short-chain canola oil to their diet to boost their buttery fatty acids. Closer to harvest time, they're given more marine fish oil to intensify the production of the Omega 3's. The result is a fish with incomparable levels of healthy Omega 3's and a rich, moist, buttery flavor.

A taste test of Australis barramundi is certainly in order, especially considering the company's positive impact on our environment, and their ability to supply vast amounts of delicious seafood at a reasonable cost ($7.99, 12 ounces retail). It's now locally available at Whole Foods, BJ's, Stop & Shop, and Price Chopper.

Goldman's pioneering success in Massachusetts should convince other commercial interests here and around the world that we can significantly relieve the unsustainable pressure on our oceans' dwindling supply wild fish, provide a healthy product — and make a healthy profit.